It is a highly anticipated Emirates NBA Cup clash in Indiana on Friday, as the defending champs Knicks look to get off the mark with their first win. These two teams know each other very well, having played in a number of big games over the past couple of seasons. My expectations from the Knicks are pretty high here, following a somewhat slow start to the year they’ve woken up with 6 wins in 8 games. I’d describe the loss to Cleveland on Wednesday as a schedule loss, considering the Knicks played on a 2nd night of a back-to-back scenario and just ran out of juice towards the end.
When you think about it the Pacers have very little to lose here. They’re huge underdogs at home according to the oddsmakers and they have a number of key players out with injuries. Tyrese Haliburton is the biggest absentee, there is a chance he returns towards the end of November though. Indy’s biggest issue this season has been in the rebounding department – they rank 27th in opponent rebounds per game (56.8). It is a big surprising considering they have a quality center like Ivica Zubac, but he too has had his fair share of injury issues to start the year.
The importance of this game cannot be underestimated for New York. After all, they did win the NBA Cup last season, so it’ll be a priority for them to get the win here. They’ve beaten the Pacers by 26 and 9 points in the last two meetings, until Haliburton returns I think they’ll continue dominating this match-up.
New York Knicks vs Indiana Pacers Predictions: Knicks -6.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
